Look at the second-most popular (it seems) sport worldwide. It's Formula 1 racing. Yet, we find that the drivers are predominantly European (just five or six nations), South American (often Brazil or Argentina) and Japanese (only two now). The cars and car companies are again predominantly from Europe (is that a surprise?) and Japan. Venues are a little more widespread, but still concentrated in Europe and a little in South America, then Malaysia, Japan, Bahrain and soon China. Even the United States is not a participant here at all now. Yet, it's not a problem, because F1 is still quite competitive and the quality is high, and it's popular all over Asia, even in the Indian subcontinent.
Cricket, on the other hand, in its bid to go global, is suffering a severe drop in quality. Initiatives like getting in more teams for the Champions Trophy, the Asia Cup and the World Cup have resulted in too many matches that don't deserve top-level international status, and several whole teams that don't deserve to be considered international quality. Even top-level teams like SL, WI, NZ and India have suffered severe slumps in form. Now we find that Sri Lanka and West Indies (and possibly NZ) are very short of money. Surely, the international cricket establishment need to strengthen themselves from within rather than expand.
